27 Jan 2012 | Africa, Index Index, minipost, News and features
Jailed Ethiopian dissident blogger Eskinder Nega will stand trial in March for terrorism charges, a federal high court judge ruled this week. He could face the death penalty if convicted. Nega and five other journalists were last November charged with providing support to Ginbot 7, a banned opposition movement that the government formally designated a terrorist entity under the 2009 anti-terrorism law last year. At this week’s hearing, the judge confirmed all six charges for two of those accused and dismissed all but one charge against three others.
27 Jan 2012 | Africa, Index Index, minipost, News and features
A Ugandan photojournalist was shot at by security forces on Tuesday as he covered their attack on the motorcade of opposition leader Kizza Besigye. Isaac Kasamani, a photojournalist with the independent Daily Monitor, said men in plainclothes shot at him from a blue police van some 10 metres away as he kneeled to take a photo of an exploding tear gas canister thrown by the agents. He wrote that the bullet narrowly missed him
25 Jan 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
Radio journalist Johnny Alberto Salazar has been found guilty of libelling a lawyer, he is the first journalist to be jailed for defamation in the Dominican Republic. Salazar made comments on his radio station about local murders and said that lawyer Pedro Baldera Gomez, who works for the Human Rights Commission of Nagua, had defended a number of thieves in the area. Salazar has been ordered to pay a one million Dominican Peso (approx. 16,705 GBP) fine and spend six months in jail.
25 Jan 2012 | Azerbaijan News, Europe and Central Asia, Index Index, minipost
Azerbaijani newspapers Yeni Musavat and Azadliq were fined 2000 manats (1,634 GBP) this week, they had been accused of damaging businessman Anar Mammadovov’s honour and business image. Mammadov, the son of Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov, appealed to the court citing articles two articles — one headlined “Kamaladdin Heydarov’s Bear Eaten” and the other “Sheikh drives Anar Mammadov out of Dubai” — published in July and September 2010 respectively.
